Healing with Fire
by Biker Babe21
Summary: With Jester having used the last of her magic to heal Caleb, and the rest of the Mighty Nein elsewhere what are the pair to do when Jester is hurt and they have no potions? Rated for mild depictions of blood. Critical Role Campaign 2 Caleb Widogast and Jester Lavorre. Widojest.


**AN****: This was for Widojest Week Day 2: Healing. I wrote this on the fly the night before I posted it to tumblr, but I am very happy with the way it turned out.**

**Healing with Fire**

When the thugs came out of nowhere, it didn't come as much of a surprise to him as it should have. They had both been talking about feeling someone's eyes on them for awhile now. It didn't surprise him when the pair of them alone were enough to kill off two of the thugs and scare off the third. But what did surprise him is when the tiefling beside him suddenly pitched forward clutching at her stomach.

"Jester!" he had called. He had rushed over and grabbed her before she could tumble to the ground. But he didn't have the physical strength to keep her upright. He knew this. She knew this. Every member of the Mighty Nein knew this. It was something of a joke amongst them. Caleb Widogast, the weak wizard. So weak that he could do little to prevent the two of them from collapsing to the ground, but at least he could say that he did slow down their fall.

She informed him bitterly that she didn't have any healing spells left. That the fight had drained the last of it when she had cast her cure wounds on him after a particularly nasty gash had opened up on his leg. Neither one had a healing potion, either. He cursed their poor fortune and lack of foresight to not restock themselves.

He had looked around. They were in Nicodranas. Right out in the open, but not in an area populated by very many people. They would need to find someplace to hole up for the night so that Jester's wound could properly heal. There was no way that he would be able to manage carrying her all the way back to the Lavish Chateau. He was far too weak for that, and the Chateau was much too far.

A dark, deserted alleyway did catch his eye. It wasn't very far, and if he really tried, he could probably carry her all the way there. The problem was that he would need to shift her, and he wasn't sure of the extent of her injury. He certainly was no cleric, and he never pretended to be. Nor was he really skilled in first aid. He admittedly hadn't been paying that much attention to that lesson in school. Sure he had bandaged a wound here and there for himself and for Nott, but there was not much else he could do.

"Jester? I need to mofe you. Can you get up?" he had asked, but she was groggy and looked like she was on the verge of passing out.

"Okay…okay…okay…you can do zis, Vidogast," he encouraged himself as he ran a shaky hand through his hair. Placing one hand on her back and the other under her legs, he took several deep gasping breathes before lifting up with all the strength he could manage. Gods, she was heavy. Heavier than he had anticipated, and he could only go a few unsteady feet before stopping. He put her down and took a brief respite.

'The sun will be going down soon,' his keen mind reminded him. He repeated the process of picking her up, walking a few feet and putting her back down several more times before finally making it to the shelter of the alleyway. Now thoroughly exhausted and drained of energy, he could barely summon up the will and the effort to bring out his spell book and begin ritual casting Leomund's tiny hut.

After ten agonizing minutes, the dome burst into life around the pair and he finally breathed a sigh of relief. They were finally safe. He let himself rest for only a brief moment, though, before turning his attention to his partner. She had her eyes closed and her hand was still resting on her stomach. Bright red blood was staining her blue skin as well as her dress.

He moved her hand aside and gasped at the deep gash in her abdomen. It didn't seem as though it had cut an artery, but that was only his best guess. He was thankful, though, that it didn't seem to go much deeper than surface level so none of her organs or other soft innards were harmed.

"I am no cleric, Jester, as you know, but I vill do my best to take care of zis and you until vee can get help in zee mornink."

He wasn't sure why he was talking to her unconscious form, reassuring her that everything would be okay, but he still continued to do it even as he was reaching into his bag and pulling out his water skin and bandages. His fingers traced the fabric of the bandages as his eyes traced his bare arms. He hadn't been wearing his bandages for weeks now, but yet he couldn't part with them. He supposed that he had kept them to reassure himself that at any time he could put them back on and hide them from not only himself but the rest of the world.

He shook his head to refocus his thoughts. Jester needs you, he reminded himself. He took his water skin and very gently poured the liquid over the wound, being careful to not unnecessarily spill it onto her dress. With the wound now cleaned, he swallowed down his fear. He put the bandages down.

"I am goink to do somesink. Zis vill hurt, but it's zee only sink I can sink of to do right now," he told her. He took another deep breath.

'Now or never,' he told himself. His fingers began moving through the air in very practiced, deliberate, familiar motions weaving a symbol in the air as arcane words tumbled unsteadily out of his mouth. The incantation completed, his hand ignited into fire.

"Please let zis vork. Please let zese flames be useful for more zen just pain," he muttered. He very gently and gingerly placed the hand still on fire onto her wound. He could feel her tensing and flinching underneath him, but he continued with his work until he was satisfied that the wound was sufficiently closed. He removed his still burning hand and released the magic as he stared at his work. Where once had been a deep gash that was slowly dripping blood, was now a deep jagged scar of burnt flesh. But it wasn't bleeding anymore that he could see.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry I had to do zat," he whispered over and over as he gently wrapped the bandages over her body. Without any scissors on him, he instead continued to wrap the bandages until he had just enough to tie it off. Only with this task complete did he finally allow himself to relax completely. He collapsed against the wall of the alley beside his patient, his body beyond the point of exhaustion.

He didn't allow himself to sleep just yet, though. He had one more task left. He grabbed hold of Jester's bright pink haversack and had to fight to free her from it. Once free of it he reached inside and took out some of her blankets. He pulled her body to him and allowed her weight to push them to the ground. He wrapped his arms around her and then pulled the blankets over both of them and fell into an uneasy sleep.

Jester was the first to awaken in the morning. She glanced around herself in confusion. Her body was stiff and sore, but she guessed it was from how she had fallen asleep. She could still feel a stab of pain from her stomach, but a quick prayer to the Traveller cleared that right up. She could also feel a heavy arm around her and someone's steady breathing.

She looked beside her and was greeted by two slitted blue eyes staring back at her. She nearly screamed in terror until she saw the dirt smeared face and the red-brown hair partially obscuring it.

"Cayleb?" she had asked to which he hummed in response.

"What happened?"

"Vee vere attacked by sugs yesterday. Vee managed to scare zem off, but you vere hurt…" he started to explain.

"I remember that part," she said as her hand went to her stomach, where instead of her dress she felt an unfamiliar fabric brushing her fingers. She looked down and saw white bandages wrapped around her torso.

"Did you do this?" she asked as she gestured to them. He nodded. The pair slowly started pulling away from each other as he rubbed sleep from his eyes.

"Ja. I'm sorry zat I am not much of a healer, but it vas zee best zat I could do at zee time," he muttered. His eyes kept glancing at her wound as she slowly began unwrapping it.

"I'm sure you did a good job, Cayleb. You saved me," she insisted. He shrugged as if he didn't believe it. With one last rotation, the last of the bandages fell away. Her eyes widened as she took in the deep scar where her wound had been. Caleb's face flushed and he lowered his eyes.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I had to…I had to…" he kept muttering over and over as she took in the angry flesh. She ran her fingers over it.

"What did you do?" she whispered. To the wizard's ears it sounded like an accusation.

"I can understand if you hate me for it, but it vas bleedink and I didn't know vat else to do. I burned you…I hurt you, Jester. I hurt you…and I don't deserfe your gratitude. Not for zis…certainly not for zis," he ranted.

"You used your fire to close the wound?"

"Ja. Zee fire cauterizes it so zat it vill close, but it still leafes behind scars," he explained. Her fingers continued tracing the wound as tears started falling from her eyes.

"I'm so sorry," he was still repeating. She furiously shook her head.

"No, don't you dare be sorry. You saved me, Cayleb. You saved me, and I couldn't be happier," she insisted and it was enough of a shook that he looked up at her. A smile was on her face and it looked like she wanted nothing more than to hold him close. She did put her hand on his arm, though.

"You saved me," she insisted again. She pulled him in closer and he was too weak to resist. She wrapped both of her arms around him and was careful to not crush the skinny man.

"You saved me…Thank you, Cayleb," she told him. They stayed like that for a few minutes before Jester reminded him that their friends would be looking for them. She pulled him to his feet.

"Come on. Let's go back to the Chateau. I've gotta tell everyone how you're an amazing healer when you wanna be," she said. His cheeks turned a bright red, but they turned an even brighter red when she placed a kiss onto said cheek. She pulled him along with her, and looking at how happy she was, for once the pyromaniac was grateful for his magical flames.


End file.
